Study concludes that time spent online is not wasted on kids

Paul Mah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:38:28 -0500

The MacArthur Foundation has released a report concluding that the Internet enables pretty much the same social interaction, albeit in a new medium. Indeed, the report notes that at its best, the Internet allows youths to participate in something akin to a meritocracy where age isn't a concern. The results of the report were based on studies performed over the course of several years, and include more than 5,000 observation hours and nearly 700 interviews, among other data sources. Ars Technica, which read the report, noted that online media seemed to provide the chance for youths to hone their communications skills. Indeed, kids described how they were able to craft (and hone) ambiguous messages.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from Ars Technica

SGI shows off concept machine made of Intel Atoms

Paul Mah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:29:37 -0500

SGI has put together a "Molecule" concept machine built, not from the latest, most powerful processors around, but from lots of Intel dual-core Atom x64 chips. This latest low-powered processor from Intel's Atom line is designed for netbooks as well as other portable computing devices to maximize battery life. A credit-card sized system board holds a dual-core Atom N330 and four memory DIMMs. The concept machine saw a 3U rack packed with 180 of the Atom boards, offering 720 GB of main memory and a staggering 720 GBps per second of memory bandwidth. According to SGI, such a setup could see use in situations where massive amounts of threads help.

To read more about this story:
- check out this The Register article

IETF mulls the option of ignoring Kaminsky DNS bug

Paul Mah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:22:30 -0500

While many DNS registries, ISPs, and companies have yet to patch the Kaminsky bug, the Internet engineering community will be getting together at the IETF to debate on whether to do anything about it. Well to be fair, the issue they are working on has to do with whether or not to encourage an upgrade to DNSSEC, known as the ultimate DNS security solution, or if it should just advocate a temporary patch to address the bug. Opting for DNSSEC appears to be logical, until one realizes that DNSSEC hasn't been widely deployed as yet, despite being in development for the better part of a decade. Without it being fully deployed across the Internet though, websites remain vulnerable to Kaminsky-type attacks. And in case you're thinking a quick resolution will be found, know that the working group is currently split on which direction to take.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from the Network World

System builders takes to AMD's Shanghai

Paul Mah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:10:49 -0500

It appears that AMD got something right with its latest Shanghai processor after all. This comes in the wake of its earlier disaster with the ill-fated Barcelona processor. According to The Register, system builders have taken to Shanghai, and have gone as far as to say that it is far better than the chip maker's previous efforts. As pointed out by senior analyst George Ou recently, the AMD Shanghai is a winner for the mainstream two-socket server market--for now. Regardless, several global OEMs are expected to immediately offer more than 25 systems based on this new 45nm quad-core processor before the end of the year.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at eWeek

Regulators: Bell Canada can throttle bandwidth of its ISP customers

Paul Mah — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:00:27 -0500

Bell Canada was given the go-ahead by regulators to throttle peer-to-peer Internet traffic on Internet pipes that it leases to third-party ISPs, provided 30 days notice is given in advance. The Canadian Association of Internet Providers complained in April that Bell was throttling bandwidth to small and independent ISPs without informing them. Article

Obama's cellphone account breached

Judi Hasson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:07:37 -0500

Several Verizon Wireless employees accessed and viewed President-elect Obama's personal cellphone account, according to Verizon Wireless. "We apologize to President-elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day," the company's chief executive, Lowell McAdam, said in a statement reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal.

Verizon said it discovered the unauthorized account access this week by several employees. The employees will be disciplined, the company said. Verizon added that the account had been inactive for several months. The device on the account was a standard feature phone rather than a smartphone with advanced email and data capabilities.

The breach is just one more example of how the next president will have to enter a secure cocoon that probably will not allow him access to a BlackBerry, email, a cell phone and the Internet to protect him against unauthorized intrusions.

For more on the Obama cellphone:
- check out this Wall Street Journal article

The IT labor shortage is real

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:29:42 -0500

Jason Hiner over at TechRepublic wrote a piece yesterday where he presented the results of the 2008 "IT Trends Survey" by the Society of Information Management. Despite perceptions fueled by the media, it appears that the budget allocated to offshore outsourcing accounts for between just 3 and 4 percent of IT budgets. This is dwarfed by the projected 2009 IT budget of 33.7 percent that is dedicated to internal staffers, or the 6.2 percent of the budget for domestic outsourced staffers.

Jerry Luftman, an IT professor and SIM director, points to the media for exaggerating the impact of IT outsourcing. Indeed, CIOs are saying that they have trouble finding enough candidates to fill open IT positions. Hiner notes that the bigger threat in the current economic climate is not outsourcing, but the lack of qualified candidates in the labor market. On the other hand, there is no question that abuse of the H-1B visa program appears to be rampant. What do you think? What is your opinion on this matter?

To read more about this story:
- check out this TechRepublic article

Microsoft unilateral downgrade of 'Vista Capable' specs upsets HP

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:24:56 -0500

Like an extended soap opera, additional information related to the ongoing "Vista Capable" class action lawsuit against Microsoft has surfaced. It appears that Microsoft made a commitment to HP back in 2005 that it will not loosen the requirements for its "Vista Capable" logo program. Even as HP put in significant investments to upgrade to newer PC graphics technology (in order to meet the specifications), internal miscommunication resulted in Microsoft agreeing to Intel's request to lower it. This is precisely what HP feared would happen. It was confirmed by an email from Jim Allchin, Microsoft's co-president of platform products and services, who angrily emailed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the mismanagement. Ballmer rejects all responsibility however, pointing to another Microsoft executive instead. Expect this lawsuit to dog Microsoft for years, even as it prepares to release Windows 7--the upgrade to Windows Vista.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from the Inquirer

Gartner: 85 percent of companies using open source

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:21:20 -0500

The analysts at Gartner say that 85 percent of 274 companies surveyed are already using open-source software, with the remaining 15 percent expected to do so by next year. The companies surveyed are end-user organizations from around the world; cost is consistently identified as the primary motivator for switching to open source (so much for the freedom of choice, though to be fair, some did mention OSS as a balance against vendor lock-in).

More revealing from the survey though, is the revelation that very few organizations have formal policies in place to protect against intellectual property violations, inadvertent or otherwise. As a result, Gartner says that the biggest barrier preventing the adoption of OSS has to do with area of governance. This includes issues like deciding which applications will be supported by OSS, as well as identifying risks in terms of supportability of OSS. This is important, as an increasing number of companies such as Google to Nokia are releasing open-source software.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at ZDNet

Proxim Wireless breaks 320 Mbps with 802.11n

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:17:55 -0500

Proxim Wireless has rolled out a new 802.11n dual-radio solution that promises 320 Mbps of throughput, or a maximum speed of 170 Mbps using the single radio version. What caught my attention is Proxim's claims that the dual-radio version can be powered off of existing POE (Power over Ethernet) infrastructure. This results in savings by eliminating the cost of additional wiring or power injectors to each access point, as is typical of other 802.11n products. The dual-radio AP8000 will cost $1,099 while the single-radio AP800 will be available for $799. Proxim did away with the use of a centralized controller found in products of its class, which the company says creates network bottlenecks; the result is cost savings compared with similar systems. Despite the promise of newer 802.11 products, cost and complexity in deployment put a damper on the predictions of the end of Ethernet by some.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at eWeek

USB 3.0 finalized, at last

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:10:35 -0500

The USB Promoter Group finalized the USB 3.0 specification on Monday this week--almost eight years after the launch of USB 2.0 at WinHEC. Also known as "SuperSpeed USB," discrete controllers based on this standard are expected in the second half of next year, with consumer products poised to follow in 2010. About 10 times faster than USB 2.0, transferring a 25GB HD movie file will take just 70 seconds compared to 13.9 minutes using USB 2.0's 480Mbps data transfer rate. On the other hand, the delays in rectifying the USB 3.0 standard meant that Microsoft will not have support for USB 3.0 in Windows 7 at RTM, according to Lars Giusti of Microsoft. At this moment, Microsoft is trying to decide if it will even incorporate USB 3.0 support in Microsoft Vista. We talked a bit more about USB 3.0 a few months back, you can check out the in-depth examination of USB 3.0 here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from CNET News
- check out this article from MarketWatch

Related Article:
An in-depth examination of USB 3.0

Jerry Yang to step down from Yahoo

Paul Mah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:08:02 -0500

Jerry Yang, the embattled co-founder of Yahoo will be stepping down from his position as the chief executive officer once a replacement is appointed, said the troubled Internet company on Monday. Yang drew intense criticism for rejecting an initial offer from Microsoft to buy the company in a deal worth $33 a share, or more than three times its price at the time of this announcement. Article

AMD unveils Shanghai server chip

Paul Mah — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:57:06 -0500

Beleaguered Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has unveiled its next Opteron quad-core processor--code named Shanghai--yesterday. The 45nm Shanghai was released ahead of time, while the ill-fated Barcelona processor, announced in September 2007, was delayed by a bug that pushed volume shipments until April 2008. AMD says Shanghai performs 35 percent better than Barcelona, as well as a decreased power requirement of 35 percent. In addition, the processor comes with enhancements that are touted to benefit customers implementing virtualization. Engineers have managed to reduce the time it takes for the CPU to shift control from one virtual machine to another by 25 percent.

Customers who had the chance to try out Shanghai on their machines gave it rave reviews, though Gartner analyst Martin Reynold remains unconvinced that Shanghai will steal the market. He notes that Shanghai's likely customers will be those shopping for a good price/performance ratio.

To read more about this story:
- check out this BusinessWeek article
- check out this Computerworld article

Citrix implements an open virtual machine format

Paul Mah — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:52:03 -0500

Citrix has released an early version of its Kensho tools, which implements the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF). The OVF is a specification that defines a neutral format for virtual appliances. A virtual appliance is a set of files that represents an application with its own operating system, and is typically encapsulated within one or more virtual machines.

The purpose behind the OVF specifications is to create a vendor-neutral file format that is portable between the different hypervisors on the market. In addition, the OVF package may also contain directions to construct several virtual machines that work together to represent a complete enterprise service or a web service. At the moment, OVF supports exporting between the VHD and VMDK file formats, which constitutes 99 percent of the virtual machines out there, according to Simon Crosby, CTO of XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix earlier this year.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from the InformationWeek

Serena dumps Microsoft Exchange in favor of Google Gmail

Paul Mah — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:45:02 -0500

Web development software maker, Serena Software has decided to move from its current Microsoft Exchange setup by favoring Google's Gmail cloud-based infrastructure. With a total of 800 employees, the move is expected to result in savings $750,000 per year when it is completed by the end of 2008. The company was paying $1 million a year to use Exchange once all related software costs such as client access licenses and software assurance fees are factored in. It is not known if this is inclusive of related bandwidth and server co-location services to run Exchange. Ron Brister, senior manager of global IT operations at Serena told eWeek that the company has subscribed to Google's GAPE, or Google Apps Premier Edition service, which costs $50 per user, per year.

While this may only be a trickle, in terms of the worldwide base of Exchange users, it does appear to validate Microsoft's shift toward a cloud-based infrastructure in the form of its Windows Azure as well as the upcoming Web-based versions of its Microsoft Office suite. Indeed, software giant EMC also unveiled its own cloud offering earlier this week.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at eWeek